HaikuJAM: What Really Happens When You Write Poetry With Strangers

In our last Tech Brief we mentioned hot new rising app “HaikuJAM… which allows users to collaborate on haikus from anywhere”. Since that post three weeks ago, we got four writers from The DANamic.ORG Editorial Team to give collaborative poetry a try, and here’s what they discovered.

Bradley Yam, Chief Innovator & Arts Writer

After playing around on HaikuJAM for a week, my main takeaways are:

The Good
– The UI is intuitive; any digital native will have no problem learning to navigate the app even if he has no idea what it is about.
– Runs pretty quickly, although the app lags a bit when “Shuffling” through different poems

The Bad

– Server Issues: The app sometimes randomly looses connection with the server.
– The only way to “JAM” globally is by shuffling through poems. Could be a better experience if I got to pick from a list just like if I were in a circle of writers.
– Low Population: There are too little users at the moment to form a wide enough pool of updated works

“5-7-5 can either be syllables, words or not at all”

Qualitative Points
– The approach to poetic style is pretty laissez-faire, 5-7-5 can either be syllables, words or not at all. This is great for experimentation, but can be annoying if you’re the only one trying to write a real haiku.
– The Karma system of likes, levelling up, and contributing back to the community is pretty addictive – it’s the app’s main reward system. I think that has a direct bearing on shaping the perspective on what kind of stuff people write.

Overall
It’s a fun app for getting started if you’re learning about poetry or you just want to play a little literary game with your friends. There are even some diamonds in the rough, but you would be disappointed to think of it as more than a game. It’s biggest contribution is a “literary” sense of connection to strangers across the world.

Jovi Ho, Chief Editor (Entertainment)

The interface is clean and calming. I actually became nearly obsessed with the app for 3-4 days, checking back on the status of my unfinished haikus more frequently than I opened Instagram.